30.6.11

I DON'T WANT TO HOLD YOUR HAND

It has been reported by another referee that Rory McLeod refused to shake hands with the referee at the end of his match in the Australian Open qualifiers today.

The speculation is that this is because Ivy Zhu is a woman and McLeod is a Muslim and that it would have somehow compromised his religious beliefs.

I wasn't there and know nothing more about this incident than has been reported on Twitter.

Also, I have no intention in straying into the murky waters of religion. I am pretty tolerant of most beliefs, no matter how barmy they may seem to others. After all, in the Britpop era I believed Shed Seven were a better band than Blur or Oasis.

But if this story is true - and it seems a strange thing for another referee to make up - then it is troubling.

Refereeing snooker matches is not a glamorous job. They certainly aren't paid fortunes and spend long periods away from home.

This woman has come all the way from China to pursue her ambition to referee regularly on the circuit and she surely deserves to be treated with the appropriate respect.

Michaela Tabb has become established as a favourite with players and fans. The fact she is a woman has long since become an irrelevance: the point is she is good at her job.

If a referee is deemed worthy of picking balls out of a pocket and passing a player the rest then they are equally deserving of a courteous handshake at the end of the match.

37 comments:

Sonny
said...

I have it on relative authority that her Weibo page makes reference to the incident but in a more light hearted manner. She says she just finished refereeing Rory McLeod and Robert Milkins, and apparently Islam men don't shake hands with females who are non-relatives so they saved a bit of time in bypassing the handshake.

The comments section below include such gems as "That Rory McLeod looks handsome" and "Does that mean if he shakes your hand you can have a relationship with him?". Roughly translated. They all seem completely unphased by it all in China. Different culture to the British land of PC!

No doubt that Women refs deserve to be treated with equal respect and dignity as men, but a player's religious beliefs, should be tolerated as well as long as they don't offend or impinge on anyone.

Whether the refusal of a handshake constitutes offence is a matter of opinion, but for all we know Rory might believe that by shaking hands with a woman, he'll be run over by a herd of cattle as soon as he shuts his cue case.

Perhaps a courteous word with the ref pre match explaining things may avoid an embarassing situation in future.

Alternatively the ref could do a deal where she doesn't offer her hand, on condition that Rory speeds up a bit. That would suit both parties.

Just flicked onto BBC News 24 to be greeted with inflamatory and tense scenes coming direct from numerous streets in the Middle East as the the Arab world as a Fatwah has been issued on Dave Hendon, labelling him the 21st century Salman Rushdie.

Baying mobs can be seen surrouding burning piles of the Snooker Scene magazine, and an effigy of Hendon has also just been set ablaze.

You are tolerant of a religion (islam) that seeks domination and to end your rights. You clearly know nothing about Islam and what it is about.

This is disgusting and needs to be nipped in the bud. If he won't shake a female ref's hand then he should not be allowed to play. Religious bigotry from the "religion of peace" especially has NO place in sport, science or most other places.

If you open up the game to international players then the bottom line is you can't really expect everyone to observe British cultural customs. No-one should be compelled to touch someone else if they don't want to, and you can be courteous without shaking hands. It's not like he's insisted that she wears a veil while she referees, so not a problem.

So it's ok to accept the beliefs of Rory and that his religion states he doesn't have to shake the female referees hand, so we mustn't upset him and his religion. What about the female ref, is it ok to make her accept his mark of respect? So she must accept that in the eyes of a certain snooker player she is a second class inferior person.

What if in the future a fellow player plays Rory and won't shake his hand because he doesn't agree with the beliefs of Rory and how they treat a fellow human being?

I'm shocked that there is tolerance for this among some people. What if a devoted nazi refused to shake a jewish refs hand? Is this to be allowed to respect political beliefs? Of course not!! Rory should be ashamed and embarrassed and he should be slapped with a heavy fine and warned not to ever repeat this disrespectful act.

If he can't leave his religious intolerance at home when he goes out to play he has no place on the professional circuit.

It seems the governing bodies of the pro and the amateur game should find a directive about the behaviour. What should be more important: the religion or the usual behaviour in the sport. If you follow the Asian Championships or the U 21 Asian Championships then you know there are players from Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan only one step away from the Main Tour qualification. (It would be interesting to know how the situation was at the U 21 Asian Championships at Kish (Iran) in this year? There were a lot of female referees.) I don't know their way of practising their religion but there is a possibility one could follow Rory. And I'm sure people who are very orthodox in other religions also have their rules and prejudices. So it should be clear for all players.

The purpose of him not shaking her hands was because islam has a code of conduct with the opposite sex closing all doors to elicit behaviour, as naturally men and woman are attracted to each other. surely this has nothing to do with disrespecting her.

Wolfgang - the facts of the story are correct. Michaela Tabb says she was told of the situation with McLeod at the start of the season, that he nods to her rather than shakes her hand and that she has no problem with it.

its a stupid situation to be in. if everyone brought religion to their situations then we could barely move.

if i told my boss i couldnt work sundays cos i got to go pray to god he would ask me to empty my locker there and then....

this world has gone mad.

im not religious at all.i would be offended if out of normal routine he refused to shake my hand.so much so that even if nobody concerned in the situation is offended, i am so much so that i wont ever support him again. even when he plays ronnie.

There is nothing in the rulebook about compulsory handshakes.In order to avoid religious sexism, perhaps the way for Muslims to go is to nod to all referees, male and female.I certainly wouldn't want to shake hands with somebody who didn't want to shake mine, and I would guess all referees would think the same.

Ah yes Seifer Almasy. He's a member of the BNP party if it's the same person I remember from another snooker site.

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I would like to note that I am not a member of the BNP at all but as usual, if you oppose that religion you are called a racist. I have no membership to the BNP and I am not far right in politics (I am authoritarian left). I suggest you stop allowing these insulting libellous slurs through onto your blog Hendon, they reflect badly on you. If it is on topic and debating properly-sure, but that post and quite a few others have been anything but.